challenge day 5: a picture of something that makes me happy

tons of things make me happy. starbucks, a good run, my favorite bands, my best friends, and on, and on, and on. but the thing that makes me giddy on a daily basis? seeing the way my husband interacts with our kids.

he had just gotten home from work -- the kids were thrilled

tommy is an amazing father, and kiki and ryan absolutely adore him. seeing them play together melts my heart every day. 





challenge day 4: favorite recipes

i live to eat. not the other way around. i don't have many of my favorite family recipes on hand, simply because i know that i could never reproduce things like my aunt judy's taco salad, my dad's bacon-mushroom mostaccioli, my mom's shepherd pie, or my mother-in-law's lasagna. but there are a few staples that i find myself making time and time again, and they both involve the slow cooker 1. because i'm lazy, and 2. because i work full time and don't always have the time to prepare a culinary masterpiece when i get home. and word to the lazy, er, wise: save yourself the time of scrubbing out your slowcooker by using reynolds slow cooker liners. seriously. life changing.

super slow cooked bbq pulled pork (slow cooker): before going to bed the night before you want to serve this, peel 2 large spanish onions, cut into 1/4s, and separate into petals. cover bottom of slow cooker with portion of petals. set one large boneless pork shoulder/boston butt on top of the onions, fatty side up, and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. bury with remaining onion petals. fill cooker with water about 3/4 of the way up the pork. cover and cook on low overnight. in the morning, remove shoulder from cooker and discard water and onions. pull apart pork with two forks, discarding excess fat. return to slow cooker. dice one medium onion and add to pork, along with a large bottle of your favorite bbq sauce. stir together and cook on low another six hours (stirring occasionally, since the bbq sauce can burn), or on high for two or three (stirring even more frequently) if you're pressed for time. serve on buns, with coleslaw if desired.


salsa chicken (slow cooker): mix a can of either cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup with a jar of salsa and pour 1/3 of the mixture to coat the bottom of your slowcooker. sprinkle taco seasoning over 4 chicken breasts (can be frozen), then cover with remaining soup/salsa mixture. cook on low 6-8 hours (or all day if you're at work). pull out chicken and shred with two forks. add back to slow cooker and pour in a can of strained black beans and a can of strained corn. cook another 20 minutes until beans and corn are heated through. serve over mexican rice and top with shredded cheese and sour cream, or serve as a filling for tacos or burritos with all your favorite toppings.
my other favorites include:

the pioneer woman's butter chicken

and

my friend june's creamy macaroni and cheese with ham



.......aaaaaaaand now i'm hungry.

i'm alive, i swear! and challenge day 4: my parents

sorry i've been MIA for a bit. i've started my new job, and things have been a little hectic as i get back into the groove of being a working mom. so far the job is stressful and a bit confusing because there is a definite learning curve. i love my co-workers, though, and i'm sure once i get the hang of it everything will be alright.

now, onto day 4 of the 30 day challenge: my parents......wooooooooo, boy.

my second halloween with mommy and daddy
(both 18 years old in this pic). holy mullet.

me, mommy, and daddy on the big day, 7/7/07

my mommy (yes, i still call her "mommy"), or "uh-ma," as ryan calls her. oh, susan...where to begin? she is ridiculous and inappropriate and balances perfectly between constructive criticism and support, and being my friend and being my parent. she's amazing. all my friends love her and have constantly commented on how awesome she is and how lucky i am to have such a cool mom. it definitely helps that she is comparatively young (only 18 years older than me). i've always felt that i can be open with her. i definitely owe it to the small age gap between us and how honest she has always been about her own experiences.

my entire wedding day she marched around demanding people tell her

how pretty she was. looking at her, i know exactly how i'll look in

another couple decades. i think i'll be ok. =]

then there's gary, my daddy (yes, "daddy"), or "uh-pa" to ryan and kiki. he plays the grumpy bad-ass introvert act a lot, but between tommy and the grand babies, he has definitely mellowed out and loosened up. growing up, my friends were always very intimidated by him because he was very quiet and would only talk when absolutely necessary (with as few words as possible). then tommy came along about seven and a half years ago, and everything changed.

my friends will attest to the fact that my dad is nowhere near as scary as he used to be. my maid of honor, erin, still brags that on my wedding day, he actually spoke to her: "hey, tina has to pee" (as my maid of honor, erin was on potty-break-dress-holding-up-duty). my wedding day was the beginning of the end of his scary image; i wish someone  had managed to get a picture of him running around the reception hall with a rainbow belt wrapped around his head, shouting his support of alternative lifestyles and how chocolate cake shots do, in fact, taste like chocolate cake. epic. truly.

during the father-daughter dance

i sobbed. he got misty as well (though he'll never admit it) 

and, because i feel they deserve some recognition too, there are also my in-laws, tom and maria. they welcomed me into their family the day tommy introduced me to them and have never stopped supporting me. they are insanely generous and thoughtful. i am so fortunate to have lucked out in the in-law department; although we have hit a couple bumps along the way, they are amazing and we have a great relationship.

so there you have it: the people who have loved me and supported me my entire life (or in my in-laws' case, from the day they came into it). i am who i am because of them, and i am eternally grateful. thank you guys -- i love you so much! 

 

challenge day 3: your first love

ugh, really?



reciprocated? that'd be tony.

we met in gym class during our freshman year of high school. he was sweet, funny, and kinda looked like devon sawa (but with longer hair):

gotta love the teenage hormones

we spent every moment we could together (difficult, considering we were 14 and had to depend on others to cart us around). we wound up dating until spring of our sophomore year, when i panicked and broke it off. i had come to the realization that although i loved him, we were both too young to be so serious. he's a great guy, though, and any girl would be lucky to have him.

and obviously, the right decision was made; if i hadn't married this amazing man:

why yes, his tux pants do seem to be missing...

i wouldn't have been blessed with these gorgeous kids:

he was excited about his new haircut

future anaheim ducks icegirl...aim high, kiki.

oh, and if you're wondering about my first unreciprocated love....keep wondering. unless you're one of my friends who already knows. ; ]

challenge day 2: meaning behind your blog name

dude. do i really need to explain why requiring more coffee is relevant to a blog about being the mother of two toddlers?

also, i'd say a good third of my facebook status updates pertain to coffee/starbucks/cinnamon dolce lattes....so there's that.

i wish i knew how to quit you...



challenge day 1, and our first fever...

Day 1-Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts

 

i'm tina. i'm 25. i married tommy, who i met just before highschool graduation through a mutual friend, on july 7, 2007. we have two beautiful, amazing kids. ryan christopher graced us with his presence june 24, 2008, and is now about 2.5. kayleigh marie ("kiki")  arrived about 14.5 months later, on september 10, 2009.

 

this is me annoying the crap out of our dog, teemu:

 

and 15 facts....hmmmmmm....

1. although i majored in english, my grammar still stinks. and commas? yeah. they are the bane of my existence.

2. if you look at the bottom of my right foot, it looks like i only have four toes.

3. we had spider-man pez dispensers, a stanley cup replica, and hockey sticks incorporated into our wedding

4. i have hockey player radar. i dated 3 hockey players, but didn't know they played until after the fact.

5. i'm by no means a neat freak, but there are certain things that i am totally OCD about it...like organizing the kids' play kitchen stuff by food group and organizing their 9 cube organizer baskets by toy type.

6. i love candles and have to burn certain scents for certain seasons: cookies/vanilla/etc. in winter, floral and fresh linen scents in spring, tropical scents in summer, and pumpkin or apple scents in the fall.

7. i always run up the basement steps because i'm afraid someone or something is going to try to drag me back down.

8. although i played sports all through junior high, i always loathed running. last year, i decided i was going to try the couch to 5K program to get in shape, to challenge myself, and to get some me-time in the evenings. i wound up loving it, and miss it terribly now that it's too cold to run outside.

9. i hope to run a 10K by the end of this summer.

10. when i hit high school, i was too afraid to try out for sports. somehow my friends convinced me to try out for the spring musical, and it instantly became the center of my universe. i was in oliver!, fiddler on the roof, bye bye birdie (my favorite, by far), and the music man.

11. my grandma's ghost let us know that she was still around on my wedding day. thinking about it still gives me [happy] chills.

12. personality-wise, i really take after my mom (fun, but slightly inappropriate). until i get annoyed or angry...then i'm channeling my dad all the way (quiet, sarcastic).

13. when i was very young, my grandmother make me doll of wooden threadspools with a crocheted purple dress and hat. her name was penelope katrinket, and i really wish i knew what happened to her.

14. i scored higher than my (now pharmacist) friend did on the ACTs. i really have to bask in that since she is now making 5x what i am.

15. i was arrested in highschool for trespassing at a supposedly haunted house in the middle of the woods. i promptly grounded myself and only went out was to volunteer at the retirement home. when my case went before the magistrate, she was pissed that they wasted her time because it was obvious that i was a good kid and it was a dumb mistake. she made a reference to harry potter before ordering that my record be expunged.

day 1: COMPLETE ta-dah!

in other news, after over 2.5 years of mommyhood, i am finally faced with my first kid fever. kiki was running around 102 this evening, even though she's been acting more or less normal. i'm keeping an eye on her and hoping that she shakes it quickly. my doctor prescribed me something to help me sleep at my appointment this morning, but i'm not going to take it in case kiki needs me. my poor baby. =[

 

i'm doing this....

....starting tomorrow, because it's late and i need to be up early.

i mean, what better way to start a blog than by sharing things about myself that have had a hand in shaping the person i am and the things i write (ok, and some silly stuff, too)? sooooo, i'm doing the 30 day challenge (as many others on my reader have done).

here's how it goes:

Day 1-Introduce, recent picture, 15 interesting facts

Day 2-Meaning behind your blog name

Day 3-Your first love

Day 4-Your parents

Day 5-Your favorite recipes

Day 6-A picture of something that makes you happy

Day 7-Favorite movies

Day 8-A place you've traveled to

Day 9-A picture of your friends

Day 10-Something you're afraid of

Day 11-Favorite tv shows

Day 12-What you believe

Day 13-Goals

Day 14-A picture you love

Day 15-Bible verse

Day 16-Dream house

Day 17-Something you're looking forward to

Day 18-Something you regret

Day 19-Something you miss

Day 20-Nicknames

Day 21-Picture of yourself

Day 22-What's in your makeup bag

Day 23-Favorite vacation

Day 24-Something you've learned

Day 25-Put your iPod on shuffle, first 10 songs

Day 26-Picture of your family

Day 27-Pets

Day 28-Something that stresses you out

Day 29-3 Wishes

Day 30-a picture

but right now? my bed is sooooo calling my name.